The Fire-Chasing Squad's Collective Meltdown

The hidden laboratory at the Anti-Entropy St. Freya Academy branch (crossed out) Fire-Chasing Squad Base One—

Because all the dirty clothes were taken by a certain rabbit to wash and dry, a certain lobster woke up to find that there was no formal attire to wear in the closet. So when the Fire-Chasing Squad, who had been brought back by Stardust, found Luming sleeping soundly, they saw Tesla wearing a pink nightgown.

"What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a beauty before?" The Lobster Girl, who wasn't wearing glasses, narcissistically tossed her hair, making everyone blush with embarrassment. You really are acting like an old man... well, that's not quite right to say.

However, if she takes off her glasses and dresses up properly, Ms. Tesla can indeed be called a beauty—but the problem is that the Honkai World matriarchal society has no shortage of beautiful women.

Tesla's inner monologue. "Damn it, I woke up to find all my clothes washed and hung up. And Little Te wouldn't let me use the dryer, saying that sun-drying them is good for my health. I don't need to guess who that stinky rabbit did it. He even took my Booster Buckle. Damn it!"

After listening to Kiana recount the whole story from her perspective, Tesla looked at the fragments of the original Flame Sword Liehuo, Blaze, that Bronya had casually retrieved along the way and fell into deep thought.

"So that means..." Tesla picked up a fragment of the sword blade, weighed it in his hand, and said, "When you went out for a walk, you inexplicably encountered a man in black who suddenly rushed out to kill you, and he even had Knight System similar to yours, but with a different color and a... 'Dragon of Evil'? He dares to steal my patent? Don't let me run into him, or I'll beat him to a pulp, or I'm not Tesla!"

"Ahem, Doctor, I tried using [Gungnir] on him but it didn't work. That guy is pretty strong." Kiana coughed and spoke up to warn him, only to be flicked on the forehead by Tesla. "What the hell are you talking about? According to you, that guy almost killed you, and then Mei and the others were transported here by some mysterious force and turned against you. So how did you guys get back?"

Mei clutched her waist, recalling the events with confusion. "I'm not quite sure. I only remember that we were fighting that purple knight the whole time... I guess we were under some kind of illusion. As for how we got back, it seems like we were defeated by the purple knight in our eyes with almost overwhelming power, and when we woke up, we were at the St. Freya Academy."

Note: Stardust discovered that the Beast Emperor Sword could be used multiple times in a short period of time, so he directly located the location of the Beast Emperor Sword and teleported there, bringing back the unconscious Luming and taking Kiana and the others with him.

"That purple knight was very strong and extremely cruel." Mei's eyes were filled with fear. "I could feel that almost every move he made was aimed at vital points. After he beat me until I deactivated my transformation, he severely injured my spine. And that wasn't all. He even used a spear made of some special material to pierce my body... At that time, I really thought I was going to die. But why don't we have any wounds on our bodies now?"

"What?!" Kiana slammed her fist on the wall in anger. "That bastard dared to treat Mei like that! I won't let him get away with this!"

Luming turned over in bed and was fast asleep.

"That's right! Violent, shameless, and evil! He slammed my head against the ground! And he kept slamming it until I lost consciousness!" Wendy looked both frightened and resentful, while also looking at the little girl who was comfortably snoring on the small bed next to her with heartache. "Brother Xing should have been teleported there afterward too. He must be exhausted from fighting that bastard to the death!"

"Exactly!" the Arin Sisters chimed in, "They bombarded us with concentrated firepower! And they hopped around like rabbits, and after unleashing their area-of-effect attacks, they even finished us off! They even took out Black Seele, boohoo..."

"Hey, I'm not dead yet!" Seele's eye turned red, and she grabbed Rosalia's collar, making a rather terrifying expression.

"Wait, something's not right." After carefully recalling the entire battle and combining it with Kiana's description, Bronya's expression suddenly became subtle. "According to Kiana, that purple knight made the Kiana we saw turn into him, but given Kiana's combat power at the time, she shouldn't have been able to kill us all... So who wiped us out?"

Perhaps it was a telepathic connection, but Bronya subconsciously glanced at the young girl who was having a sweet dream. Then she gave a self-deprecating laugh. How could that be? Her body was just that of an ordinary little girl. Even with the Knight System's enhancement, their abilities were almost identical. Besides, they were Valkyrie far beyond ordinary people. It was impossible for Sachi to be so strong that she could easily crush them even when she transformed into an ordinary person's body, right? The reason she was able to defeat Kiana before was because Kiana controlled the rhythm of the battle from the very beginning, and Sachi didn't give Kiana a chance to unleash her true power, taking her down with a single combo.

After all, the Valkyrie's body is also very fragile. Without armor protection, she is no match for those high-damage attacks. Not everyone is lucky.

Bronya's question left everyone bewildered. Tesla didn't think much of it, directly taking the Desire Driver, which still had the Fever Buckle and Booster Buckle, from Luming, and pulling out the Extreme Fox ID to put it into a reading device. "Don't worry about it. The Desire Driver's main system can see the first-person perspective battle during the transformation. Just see what kind of battle the Rabbit Assistant went through, right?"

So, half a minute later—

"Holy crap?" Tesla rubbed his eyes in disbelief, staring excitedly at the image of the Fever Ninja -form Fox who had slashed Black Seele to pieces with two swords. Luckily, the system could automatically pause the scene, otherwise it would have been really difficult to capture this footage.

"Defeating Wendy, Mei, Bronya, and those two brats Seele, in just twenty-five seconds? Switching forms eight times, unleashing special attacks ten times, pushing the performance of all buckles except the ones not in use to their limits! No wonder it's my favorite... cough cough, hey, what's with those expressions?"

Mei stiffly turned her head little by little to look at Luming, who was kicking the blankets off the bed. "So... it really was Sachi who crushed all of us?"

"This, this is not like the usual Xing at all. She must have been manipulated by that bastard, otherwise she would never have hurt Mei. Doctor, please continue playing!" Kiana could not accept the facts and urged Tesla to play the rest of the recording.

And so—

Inside the laboratory, gasps of shock, swallowing, and cries of fear filled the air.

"Based on the driver's feedback on the user's physiological condition, when that guy escaped, he was forced to stop the pursuit due to mental fatigue and left that place through unknown means..." Tesla, beaming, lifted the sleeping Luming and spun her around. "That was fucking perfect, Xing! You showed me the true power of the Booster Buckle! You also proved to them that no matter when or where, you are the strongest ace of the Fire-Chasing Squad! Yang's best student! St. Freya's strongest Schicksal Knight! And the strongest in all of Schicksal! I don't believe that Yulian Dayle can beat you when you're in good condition! If it were you, you could definitely take over Joachim's position..."

"Hey, Doctor, is it really okay for you to celebrate?" Mei interrupted Tesla's excited speech with a strange expression. "Shouldn't you give Sachi another check-up? I suspect that his consciousness may have been manipulated."

"Huh?" Tesla glanced at her questioningly. "There's no need for that. Few people in the world have stronger resistance to mental energy. Besides, he possesses the Key of Consciousness, making him very difficult to manipulate, and—"

Tesla glanced at them, his eyes filled with confusion and a hint of resentment. "I think he was actually too gentle with you guys compared to how he beat up that purple bastard later."

"Lobster Doctor, you call this gentleness?!" Kiana exploded instantly, grabbing Tesla's shoulder strap and roaring, "Look at the state he's left Mei and the others! He even used Judah to pierce Mei, not just once, but five times! Is this gentleness?"

Normally, Tesla, with her fiery temper, would have already launched into a tirade of insults, but at this moment, she remained incredibly calm, letting Kiana tug at her clothes.

Tesla picked up his glasses from the lab bench, put them on slowly, and the indoor daylight reflected a cool white light on the lenses. "Come on, tell me, what's your configuration, and what's his configuration?"

"Huh? That goes without saying, it's obvious that Brother Xing is better than us in every way..." Rosalia was about to retort when Liliya, with a complicated expression, covered her mouth. Idiot, now is not the time to be silly!

Tesla rewound the video to the beginning, zoomed in on a certain scene, and pointed to the red feather floating next to the six riders. "Look, it 'Key of Consciousness, Feather Crossing Dust. He tried to restore you to normal, which is also evidence that he has always been in a conscious state."

Tesla gave them a cold look, his aura completely different from his usual comedic persona, showing the true demeanor of a veteran of Anti-Entropy.

"What's your lineup? Valkyrie, Stigmata, Herrscher Candidate, Fusion Warrior, and Knight System. And him?!"

Tesla, realizing he hadn't controlled the volume, belatedly covered his mouth, took two earplugs from the drawer, carefully put them in Luming's ear, then pushed the crib to the next room. Upon returning, he slammed the door shut with a loud "bang," and the next second, a roar countless times more terrifying than a lioness's roar echoed throughout the entire laboratory:

"The Stigmata are corrupted and unusable! The Hyper-Evolution Factor has been greatly diluted! Even Kaslana's bloodline cannot be manifested! Right now, she's just an ordinary little girl. Of course, she can still show a little bit of her past power, but that can't last long, right?"

"In other words, he only has the Knight System."

Tesla was breathing heavily as she walked past the group, patting different parts of their bodies. "Come on, tell me, are you dead?"

"What are you complaining about if you're not dead? He's been on the verge of death countless times, and what did he say?!"

"Not even once! He didn't even consider asking you guys for help, because you couldn't help him when the gap between you was widening!"

"But what was the result? Not only did they not help, they also made things worse! Oh, of course, this time it's not your fault."

"But, Brother Xing is too..." Wendy was about to speak weakly when she received a stinging slap on the face.

Enraged but not irrational, Tesla's fingers flew across the keyboard, capturing numerous combat clips from the past 25 seconds and displaying them on the large screen. "Look at what you're all doing! Did you show him any mercy? According to the Knight System's records, Wendy was preparing to drain the air around him, complete with a bonus of invisible Wind Blade cutting. Mei activated her electric field to its full potential. Bronya didn't even have time to activate her Black Core. Rosalia and Liliya used their ultimate moves, but unfortunately, none of them hit. Seele, weren't you two connected to Xingyou? Why didn't you see that?!"

"We didn't know it was Brother Xing..." White Seele tried to explain weakly, but was slapped in the face.

"Hey, you..." Black Seele logged on to grab a number, only to be slapped across the face by an enraged Tesla, leaving her stunned.

"So what are you trying to say? You're holding a knife and want to kill others, but you won't allow others to kill you? Xing is absolutely right, your values simply don't allow him to be honest!" Tesla was so angry he didn't know what to say. "Look closely, he has some kind of ability to open portals, and after beating you to the point of being unable to fight back, he sent you away! Cruel? Look at how he brutally beat that purple bastard later, that's what you call cruel!"

"And, most importantly!" Tesla grabbed Kiana by the collar, almost touching her nose, and roared, word by word, "If he hadn't beaten up the enemy in front of him, you would have been killed by that purple bastard! Maybe even Mei and the others!"

"When someone saves your life, you should be extremely grateful and repay them in every way possible. Look at the way you are! If he knew, he would be heartbroken..."

"Besides, given his personality, do you think he wasn't bleeding inside when he beat you up? He was in pain too! Look at the Knight System's monitoring of his brainwaves! From the start of the battle, the index has been at its highest level, never dropping even a little!"

"And another, and another!" Tesla grew angrier as he spoke, giving Kiana and the others no chance to defend themselves. "A whole group of you were defeated by a kid in less than half a minute, don't you feel ashamed? I'm fucking ashamed for you! Look at how Sachi uses the Knight System, and look at you! Are you filming a slow-motion documentary?"

"A bunch of ingrates and hypocrites, get out of here!!!"

—I might have gone too far with the scolding, but I had to scold them first; we need to let them and you all get used to it.—

After kicking the Fire-Chasing Squad out without a word, an agitated Tesla roughly pulled a bottle of high-concentration vodka from the cabinet, bit off the cap, and gulped down a large mouthful without feeling a thing. He then touched his back and found his palms were covered in sweat.

"Phew, phew, I haven't been this angry in ages. These little girls are so naive. No wonder Rabbit Assistant always leaves alone to run dungeons; isn't that obviously slowing him down?"

Temporarily numbing his brain with alcohol, Tesla sat in his chair and started watching the battle replay again. After slowing it down several times, he could finally see smooth first-person combat footage.

"Heh, the Fever Buckle is so skillful even though it's his first time using it... Wait, when did he take the Desire Driver 2.0? I was too excited to notice! Damn, did she accidentally take the wrong one last night when she was looking for the belt and cleaning the house for me? Luckily, nothing unusual happened to her body..."

"Wait, what's this?" Tesla frowned, dragging the progress to the moment when Xing snatched the Dark Moon Dark Sword and stabbed it at the black-clad man's face.

Slow down, expand.

Tesla's pupils constricted sharply, as if he had witnessed something unbelievable, and he cried out:

"What the heck? What's going on? Isn't that Kiana's face?! When did she get colored contact lenses? No, no, assuming this is Kiana who was used as a scapegoat by that bastard and almost beaten to death by Sachi, then where is the real Kiana...?"

"No, the 'Kiana' you see is not our 'Kiana'."

Just as Tesla, the laboratory door opened at some point, Luming walked in, still half asleep. She took out two empty full bottles and placed them on top of the wreckage of the Flame Sword. "Let's not talk about that now, Doctor. Do you have any more Ex-Aid Driver here? Mine were all confiscated, and I need them urgently."

"... Also, thank you for speaking up for me, dear Dr. Tesla."

"Dragon! Blade!"

"Rider Match—Saber!"!!"

Author's Note—

Um, did I go a bit too far? But it's better to be harsh than to suffer later because of naivety, right?